Two things

1. I just discovered the most beautiful...blog? community? I'm not sure what it is, but I am in love. It's called Taste Spotting. It's very visually beautiful, but the recipes, oh the recipes! I haven't tried any yet, but you better believe I'm starting a list. And it will be long.

2. I have to laugh at the kind of google hits that my blog gets around Halloween. The combination of "pumpkin" and "butts" makes me pop up on some funny searches. A few from the last couple of days:
Fat Pumpkin Butts
Pumpkin Carvings of Butts
Pumpkins shaped like Butts
Pumpkins with Butts
Pictures of pumpkin butts
pumpkin pie with butt


Maybe I'm the only one that finds that funny, and I'm sure that this post will result in more weird search results, but that's part of the fun in having a blog hit tracker :)

Happy Friday!

Thanksgiving Card

I made this simple little card for the Cricut Cardz Challenge, #48 which is to make a card for Thanksgiving. I have very few sentiment stamps, so I covered up part of a stamp that said "Thanks you're sweet" so that I could just have it say Thanks. Ideally, I'd have liked it to say "Give Thanks"...but I do what I can :)

The cardbase is from Plantin Schoolbook (I don't know that it's a card "feature", but a card was one of my button options. Is that the same thing?), leaves are cut from the Create a Critter at 2 3/4 inches, the brown craft paper is from my stash, the rest is from Stampin' Up. The brads are from JoAnns.

I embossed the orange leaf with my new toy:


Sizzix Texture Boutique! I love it! I only have two folders right now (8 more are in the mail!). It's not funny how quickly I'm outgrowing my craft space. There are just so many fun things out there right now.

The winniest weekend ever!

Winniest is not a word, but I think it needs to be! Last week, I entered into several blog hop contests and contests to win Pink ATG guns, and, much to my surprise I won THREE of the contests (not three ATG's :)! I haven't won anything since April, so to win three in a week was a thrill to say the least :)

The first contest was held by Scotch ATG, and I won this pink ATG gun. I've been using it for a few days, and I can't say enough good things about it. I adore it. It seems like it would be bulky, but it's really not once you get the hang of it. And you don't have to press down to release the adhesive at all (which you have to with tombo mono rollers-and it often left lines in my paper). Love.

The second contest was by Helen, over at craftingcricutmom <--click for her blog! The contest was also to win a Pink ATG, but then she decided to draw a name for a bonus gift, and that was me! I received her package today and this is what it contained: Thank you so much, Helen! Everything is so fun, and I couldn't wait to use the Christmas stamps, so today I made my first Christmas card:


I love that my stash is getting to the point where I have everything I need to make my ideas come to life, it's so fun.

The third contest was over at Scrapping Sweets By Abby <-- click for her blog! The contest was to win a Brown and pink Cricut apron, and I won! We also learned that we only live 40 minutes from each other, and Abby had taken a trip to my middle of nowhere town just a few days before the contest. What are the chances?! I'll add a picture of my apron as soon as it arrives.

so that concludes my winnigest week ever! I hope you all get a chance to check out Helen and Abby's blogs, they are both really creative ladies full of good ideas. Have a great week! (I hope it's winny too.)

Something other than a card

I've been trying to think of ways to use my cricut to make something other than cards. (I'm addicted to card making right now, though!)
Since Halloween is coming, I've been focusing on that. I decided I wanted to make some luminaries to line my sidewalk up to my door step for Halloween night (assuming it doesn't rain!). These are what I came up with:And the best part? They won me an ATG gun! I'll have to tell you about that in a another post, though, because this has been the winniest week ever for me and I can't wait to share my prizes.


I also have these mirrors from Ikea in my entryway, and I cut a bunch of shapes from Pumpkin Carvings at 3" to go in each mirror. I love them! I think I'll be changing out the cuts for each holiday this season, because I love the effect. It's very hard to take a picture of a mirror, so you'll have to trust me that it looks much cuter in real life.


And then I used the leftover face cuts from my mirror cutouts to decorate my mini pumpkins for Halloween. I always keep my mini pumpkins up through Thanksgiving, so I didn't want to permanently alter them, and I think this works perfectly.

So, that's what I've been up to!

ETA: sorry for the horrid pictures! It's dark by the time I get home, so with that comes terrible pictures until Spring :)

3 year old birthday card

I made this sweet little card for my nephew PJ, who will be three next month. Where the heck does time go?! It seems like just yesterday I was hogging all his baby cuddles and listening to him grunt and try to figure out the world.

Everything except for the 3 is from Create a critter, the 3 is from Plantin Schoolbook. Since there was so much going on with the train I had a hard time coming up with a background, so I settled for plain blue stripes. The bear and the 3 are pop-dotted from the page.

Since PJ is only 3, I guess this card is more for his mama (my sister), who also just got her first cricut a few days before I did! They live 500 miles away but someday maybe we'll be able to have a crafty get together! A girl can dream.

I've discovered so many new wonderful blogs this week that I haven't taken the time to post on my own. I just love the cricut community I've stumbled upon, everyone is so creative and supportive. It's just so much fun.

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!

Create a Critter!

Yesterday the mailman arrived bearing gifts:


Just in time for World Card Making Day! I'm so excited about this cartridge. To say I love it would be an understatement, I'm obsessed! It really does have a cutesy critter for every holiday and event. Love!

I made the two purple and pink cards yesterday, and the turkey today. If my Cricut mat hadn't lost all of it's sticky I'd still be holed up in my room today, but alas, I'm waiting for it to dry now (and crossing my fingers it gets sticky again!)

This is the last cartridge I'll be buying for awhile, at least until 2011. I have four now and I don't think I'll ever get to use all of the images I have!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! I tried to send this post using my phone, but it failed. Pretty sure someone in my area code with a phone number that spells out "BLOGGER" is going to be very annoyed with me :)

Two Tier Cake

This is the first thing I get to cross off of my 25 before 25 list! and, I can safely say that I am not good at this, and have no desire to attempt it again, and this is good to know!

The top smaller cake is lemon cake, using this recipe. (just the cake, not the ganache) I put a layer of plain chocolate ganache in the middle and on the top of the cake and frosted it with my favorite chocolate mousse frosting (which is a BAD idea for a cake you're going to cover with fondant! The frosting slipped out the bottom of the fondant and made it lumpy and wrinkly).

The bottom layer is my black magic cake, also with a layer of ganache in the middle and on top and with the chocolate mousse frosting. It was divine! It was moist and rich and so delicious. I was happy with that.

I also didn't flatten the top of my bottom tier, so when I stacked the smaller tier on top there was a big fat gap between the two cakes! That's why my pink "ribbon" is folded around the middle of the cake.

So my first (and most likely ONLY) two tier cake was a little lumpy and lopsided, but it was tasty and a good experience. One I will NOT be attempting again!


Chocolate Ganache (adapted from several recipes)
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz bag semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs unsalted butter

Bring cream and butter to a boil, remove from heat, pour in chocolate chips and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and cool to room temperature. So easy!